Deontay Wilder just said Anthony Joshua’s career ‘consisted of lies’ and that he was never ‘a true champion’

Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury reacted on Twitter to Anthony Joshua’s upset loss on Saturday.
Joshua was knocked down four times en route to a seventh round stoppage at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
And Wilder said the defeat shows Joshua was never "a true champion" and that his career "consisted of lies."
Fury reacted differently, saying: "these things happen" in heavyweight boxing, before advising Joshua to "rest up, recover, regroup, and come again."
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Deontay Wilder said Anthony Joshua was never "a true champion" after the British fighter lost his heavyweight titles in shocking fashion, beaten by Andy Ruiz Jr. on June 1.

Ruiz Jr. overcame a third round knockdown to drop Anthony Joshua twice in the same round, then twice again in the seventh, destroying the champion on his American debut at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

The defeat brings an abrupt end to Joshua’s championship run, one he began with a knockout win over Charles Martin in 2016, winning the International Boxing Federation title at the 02 Arena in London.

Two years later he added the World Boxing Association belt to his waist when he got off the canvas to beat Wladimir Klitschko in the 11th round, before winning Joseph Parker’s World Boxing Organization title in 2018.

WATCH: Andy Ruiz Jr. shakes up the world by beating Anthony Joshua, knocking the Briton down 4 times in a heavyweight shocker

But shortly after Saturday’s stunning result, Joshua’s heavyweight rival Deontay Wilder, the champion of the World Boxing Council, berated Joshua on Twitter.

"He wasn’t a true champion," Wilder said. "His whole career was consisted of lies, contradictions, and gifts."

The pair had been in negotiations for a showdown over the years, a coming together of hard-hitting and unbeaten heavyweights which would unify all the major heavyweight titles in boxing and crown one undisputed king.

And Wilder implied that the reason for the failed fight was because Joshua’s team were simply avoiding it. "Now we know who was running from who!"

Another of Joshua’s heavyweight rivals, Tyson Fury, also reacted to the Ruiz Jr. upset.

Fury said: "We have our back and forth’s but Anthony Joshua changed his stars through life. Heavyweight boxing, these things happen, rest up, recover, regroup, and come again."

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